Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern has introduced the Government’s Civil Partnership Bill, saying that what it gives “is profound and is positive”.
Mr Ahern said the Bill had been “carefully framed to balance any potential conflict” between the rights of marriage and the right to equality under the Constitution.
The legislation will give same-sex couples virtually all the rights which currently attach to marriage.
Fine Gael Justice spokesperson Charlie Flanagan also welcomed the Bill. He referred to extensive opposition to the legislation, and implied that much of this had been religiously inspired.
Mr Flanagan told opponents of the Bill that Ireland was “not a theocracy”.
He added: “We do not inhabit a flat earth covered in picket-fence perfect homes.”
Labour’s Justice spokesperson Brendan Howlin also welcomed the Bill, but added that he will not support an opt-out for those who object to same-sex civil unions on conscience grounds.
Mr Howlin said that he saw no “basis for suggesting that florists, photographers, printers or providers of any service” could eligible for an opt-out on the basis of conscience.
Mr Howlin added that the Bill, while welcome, was not “the end of the journey, but it is a long way down the path”.
Mr Howlin claimed the Bill was “not legislating for true equality”.
And he quoted Australian High Court judge Michael Kirby, of the Australian high court, to the effect that marriage was “a civil status, created and defined by the law”.
Green Party spokesperson on Justice, Ciaran Cuffe said that the Bill did not “go as far as…I would like”. But he added that “politics is the art of the possible and this Bill heads in the right direction to an end point on which I agree with many Deputies”.
Mr Cuffe also noted that there was considerable opposition to the Bill, saying that he had “received many letters and telephone calls from those not in favour of civil partnership and who do not wish to grant formal recognition to same-sex civil partnerships”.
Another Green Party TD, Paul Gogarty, while also welcoming the legislation, said that it did “not go far enough” adding that same sex marriage was “still very much on the agenda”.